Ana Jesovnik

Research interests: Evolution, taxonomy and natural history of ants (Formicidae).

Fungus-growing ants of genus Sericomyrmex are a fascinating group to study: they are living in a close symbiosis with its fungal cultivar, they have nests of particular structure, with chambers and tunnels going deep underground, and most of their natural history, taxonomy, and evolutionary history is almost entirely unknown. For my Doctoral thesis I plan to revise a species-level taxonomy of this genus, to reconstruct its evolutionary history, and evolutionary history of its fungal cultivar, to compare the two in order to study their co-evolution, and to investigate its nest architecture, and what are the factors that drive its specificity in Sericomyrmex species. In addition to insights this will give us about this fascinating ant group, it will hopefully also help us draw conclusions about fungus farming evolution, about co-evolution in general, and about importance that behavioral traits, such as nest architecture, have on speciation.